I had my first detecting day in France, yesterday. I worked around the edge of the orchard and paddock of the hectare we are temporary custodians of. There are no photos here as nothing found merited an image. However some interesting finds all the same. The only coin was a 1986 20 centimes that was as bright as the day it was lost. Then my Fisher F44 alerted me to silver, with 80 on the screen and and that bright silver sound. The animal vacine bottle I found at 6 inches clearly had a highly conductive screw top, as did the second one found five minutes later. Then a clear signal and a 60 on the display had me excited. The brightly coloured, square sided, copper nail looked interesting but the B 63 stamped on the round head suggested a relatively new item. As it was found near the base of a telephone pole, it is probably a date nail that was dropped. The metal shirt button initially had me thinking coin, but as it was my first button I treated it as a detecting right of passage. I then moved into the orchard and the F44 screamed a high tone and a max reading of 90. This was either a hoard of silver or something big. Digging down to eight inches I could see rust. Extending the hole I eventually uncovered a 10 inch, cast iron, cooking pot lid. After unearthing I checked the hole carefully, just in case it was covering a pot full of gold. But I was greeted with silence. Twenty feet further on I found the same. Both lids were handle side down and perfectly horizontal and at the same depth. Research has discovered that country folk sometimes buried scrap iron to provide nutrients for fruit trees, so that is likely to be the explanation.

So, no treasure, yet, but an insight into the history of our 1890's farmhouse. I wonder what else is lurking underground, waiting for me to discover. Oh, and who knew detecting was so tiring?

Bonjour le ami, i am also living and detecting in France (grenoble, Isere)

Detecting around farmhouses is very tiring and tedious due to pollution but there is surely a few good finds to be had.

French mythe says that you have to detect in the chicken and pig pen's the cellar and corner of walls where they meet. In history there have always been taxes and tax collecters so people would hide there things either in the garden and places stated above as tax collecters would look for hidden area's that could hide things and were obvious.. IE: hollow wall spaces, false rafters and false floor tiles.

Bonjour le ami, i am also living and detecting in France (grenoble, Isere)

Detecting around farmhouses is very tiring and tedious due to pollution but there is surely a few good finds to be had.

French mythe says that you have to detect in the chicken and pig pen's the cellar and corner of walls where they meet. In history there have always been taxes and tax collecters so people would hide there things either in the garden and places stated above as tax collecters would look for hidden area's that could hide things and were obvious.. IE: hollow wall spaces, false rafters and false floor tiles.

good luck and keep with it.

I've been looking for a stash in my barn walls for years, so far I've accrued penknives, spanners & syringes. The whole barn is limestone but one day I spotted a single black stone below a small hole in a sea of white stone, up on the ladder, checked out the hole & started my owl poo collection
I'll have to survey all the other holes/clues now with my pin pointer

As for coins, keep in mind, the older coins (prior to the euro ..in 2002) have all been de-valued for use. That is, if the coin is prior to 2002, it is without monetary value (with exception of numismatic value or value of the metal). I came to France in 2010 and found a lot of coins but failed to cash them in before the dateline passed for de-valuation. OOPS! You may also try to get permission from owners of old building structures that are still partially standing. Good luck

Interesting that, so the banks won't even change old francs now. I'm sure Skytraker isn't bothered about that, not unless he finds hoards of them!
I doubt anyone goes metal detecting with a view of finding coins of any value still in circulation, don't get me wrong, I have a copper jar for the modern finds which is building up nicely and change up at the bank when I find 5 x £1 (old now) coins.
But the historical fascination about finding a lovely old coin is in my opinion priceless!
Jim

The french have changed their money 2/3 times since the 50's and i have kilo's of worthless french coins , luckily in the numismatic world some of the coins are rare to find and still have some value (not many fabricated for a certain year etc) so always good to check them out just incase

There is a magazine that you can find in the local news agents that will give a latest price listing of pre Euro coins there is also a few web sites as well.

I am also detecting in france but have only been out twice since the weather turned to 5 weeks of rain followed by two of snow.

Best finds so far 2 x 50 franc coins from the 50's and one bullet case , some of the french coins can be worth a lot of money certain rare markings from different mints are worth investigating the suggested price for a 50 franc coin with a small b mark is 4/600 euro so they are all worth a bit of research, needless to say mine were not the valuable rare ones.

Thanks a lot, Fred! Now I'm going to have to start dismantling the place!

As I recall, it's also one of the places to leave a container with Coal, Urine and Iron Filings in it (supposedly to deter the witches from gaining entry to the property - Aah, 17th C England was a jolly place to be Regards ss47

I suppose detecting in such a vast country like France, location research would be even more key than over here. Remoteness out there really would be remote. I wonder if the French are as enthuses tic for old bits and bobs as we are?
I know they're not as keen on fishing as us Brits, hence why tonnes of people (including myself) flock there every year to sample their beautiful lakes

I suppose detecting in such a vast country like France, location research would be even more key than over here. Remoteness out there really would be remote. I wonder if the French are as enthuses tic for old bits and bobs as we are?
I know they're not as keen on fishing as us Brits, hence why tonnes of people (including myself) flock there every year to sample their beautiful lakes

France is a bigger country but you usually bump into a village or town every 15 kms and there are a lot of small hamlets in between, there is also a flourishing community of detectorists in france but the laws are a bit different from britain.

Fishing is still a very popular pastime and there are quite a few hunters in the (hunting) season so i always wear a yellow security jacket just in case i get taken for a deer.

Keep us posted skytraker,
I love a good story, I recon you'll have a few older coins yet if it's 1890's farm house

Well, one month into my summer visit to Haute-Vienne and I am finding the promised coins. Apart from two poor condition Napoleon III, I have been finding WW2 era coins in our garden. Being aluminium, these presented a bright signal, which I fully expected to be trash. Although not of any value to a collector, these are providing an insight into French history. The most interesting for me is this 1944 Vichy 1 Franc, with the words 'French State' and 'Labour, Family and Fatherland'. This was minted when the Franc was a satellite currency of the Reichsmark, so 'Fatherland' takes on a sinister meaning. One of the Napoleon III was found near a stream crossing a permission on the neighbouring farm. The farmer, Jean-Marc, was very interested in the location of the find. He said that before our house was built, in 1890, there was no water in our hamlet, so the washing was done in this stream, near that location. As his ancestors were the only inhabitants before 1890, chances are that his great grandmother was less than careful about checking pockets before the wash
Jean -Marc has just been round to say that the field next to the original Lavoir is being ploughed and he will take me down there to pinpoint the exact location in the hope that more will be found. So it seems we are all enjoying my hobby

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Ah, but there was Roman occupation in the area, too, so I am ever hopeful. And, of course, WWII was a major part that history, with lots of Resistance activity locally, so who know what I may find while looking for the farmer's lost tools